Re: "State's infrastructure gets a C-minus, " A-2, March 20. In reference to Mark Schleifstein's article on the American Society of Civil Engineer's grading of Louisiana's infrastructure, the 50-year coastal master plan ignores the immediacy of the specter that haunts our state. Most Louisianians are aware of the mismanagement of our coast; however, the state continues to offer perverse incentives that augment this process without reaping most of the benefits of oil royalties to offset the environmental damage.

Louisiana has lost a piece of the state larger than the state of Massachusetts. Wars around the world were fought over smaller parcels of land that are less fertile than our coast. The state seems content with allowing our major urban areas like New Orleans to turn into Venice -- surrounded on all sides by water. The trade-off is they wall in our cities with a levee system that is supposedly stronger after Katrina. Levees are a last defense, not a solution.

The state's 50-year master plan ignores the immediacy of the problem. The bulk of Louisiana's resources should go toward stemming the erosion rather than seeking complacency through building higher levees. With strong hurricanes barreling at our coast, the soaring walls of Venice cannot keep our cities dry forever.